Warren Blasts AIG 'Stealth Bailout'

U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren blasted American International Group and the U.S. government for allowing the insurer to get a tax break after receiving a government bailout, calling it “a stealth bailout.”

In an op-ed piece appearing in “The Washington Post,” Warren, who led the charge for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, was joined by Damon Silvers, director of policy and special counsel to the AFL-CIO, in criticizing AIG’s ability to benefit from its previous years' losses and show a profit for the fourth quarter of 2011 of close to $20 billion.

“When a company accepts a taxpayer bailout to stay in business, it ought to follow the same tax laws followed by companies that aren’t bailed out,” the opinion piece says.

Just a few weeks earlier, Warren joined three other former members of the oversight committee for the Trouble Asset Relief Program in criticism of AIG’s profits.